Fresh round of money laundering charges for Najib Razak

By Fergus Hunter & Nick McKenzie

August 7, 2018 — 5.32pm

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak will this week be hit with a fresh round of charges for money laundering offences and face further questioning by anti-corruption authorities, Fairfax Media can reveal.

According to a source with direct knowledge of the investigation, Najib will attend court on Wednesday, charged with three offences in relation to suspicious transactions at SRC International, formerly a subsidiary of 1MDB, the state investment fund at the centre of a multibillion dollar corruption scandal that has rocked Malaysia.

Najib Razak walks into a courtroom in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where he was charged with corruption offences.
Credit:AP

ANZ Banking Group is the single largest shareholder of AmBank, holding a 24 per cent stake, and is able to appoint appoint representatives to the board and fill key executive roles. ANZ has consistently denied any involvement with the suspect transactions at AmBank.

From their boat, Malaysian marine police watch the Equanimity arrive at Port Klang, Malaysia, on Tuesday.Credit:AP

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's new charges against Najib come shortly after the "Equanimity", a luxury super-yacht owned by a wealthy financier linked to the 1MDB scandal, was returned to Malaysia by Indonesian authorities.

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Reportedly worth $330 million, the yacht was targeted in a global search for assets bought with the funds allegedly plundered from 1MDB. It had been seized in February as part of a US Department of Justice investigation but a Jakarta court ruled the vessel had been wrongfully impounded. The US has now suspended its efforts to recover the vessel.

“We believe the ship is owned by the Malaysian government because it was bought by Malaysian money that was stolen by certain parties,” Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad said on Monday, thanking his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo for assisting with the investigation.

Najib was arrested in June following Mahathir's shock victory in the country's elections earlier this year, ending 61 years of rule by Barisian Nasional party.

Anwar told ABC radio in June that Australia's foreign policy over Najib's time in power "clearly has been tainted, has been perceived by many Malaysians as complicit to the ... crimes of corruption and also criminal actions". He said the government had made "extremely supportive" statements of the former leader.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop defended Australia's "positive and broad-based" ties with the previous administration, saying they enabled collaboration on matters of mutual interest. She said Australia did not seek to impinge on the sovereignty of other countries.

Nick McKenzie is an investigative reporter for The Age. He's won seven Walkley awards and covers politics, business, foreign affairs and defence, human rights issues, the criminal justice system and social affairs.